Protective device for vending machines



June 19, 1945. w RICHMQND ET AL 2,378,868

PROTECTIVE DEVICE FOR VENDING MACHINES Filed Dec. 8, 1941 Patented June19, 1945 UNITED STATES PATENT PROTECTIVE DEVICE FOR VENDING MACHINESApplication December 8, 1941, Serial No. 422,090

4 Claims.

This invention relates to a protective device for vending machines. Moreparticularly, it relates to the device for circumventing theft ofarticles from vending machines by means of inserting wires and the likethrough a delivery opening into the mechanism.

Machines for vending packaged merchandise, such as candy, quite commonlydeliver the merchandise to an open tray or the like from some pointwithin the machine, usually by some sort of a chute arrangement. Theopening is generally sumciently'small and the chute passagewaysufliciently circuitous so that a hand and arm may not be passed throughthem to the magazines which store the merchandise. The opening, however,will, of course, permit the insertion of wires and ingenious thieves areable to enter the candy machine and in the process of doing this,seriously damage the mechanism. It is consequently desirable to providemeans for preventing such activity. On the other hand, experience hasshown that this type of vandalism occurs only in certain locations ofvending machines, such as places where a thief may work undisturbed fora considerable length of time. Consequently, the protective devicewanted is one which can be added to some machines and not to others andwhich is in no way dependent upon the functioning of the deliverymechanism.

One object of this invention is to provide a closure member within thedelivery chute of a vending machine, which closure member is normallyopen, in conjunction with a drawer, which is normally closed and whichis subjected to receive an article delivered by the vending machine.Means are provided for causing the closure member to close the chutecompletely so that wires cannot be passed up it, when the drawer isopen.

A further object of this invention is to cause the closure member tocompletely close upon the partial opening of the drawer and inconjunction with this to provide a false inside forward wall for thedrawer spaced from the front of the drawer by a distance sufiicient topermit the complete closing of the closure member before a customer canactually reach into the drawer.

These and such other objects as may hereinafter appear are attained inone embodiment of the invention shown in the enclosed drawing,consisting of one sheet, wherein:

Figure 1 is a side view partly in elevation and partly in section of theinside of a vending machine showing applicants invention; and

Figure 2 is a view of a portion of the front of the drawer showing theposition of the guide rod and closure spring.

Continuing to refer to the drawing, the numerals ill and I2 identify theback and front walls respectively of a vending machine case. In theupper part of the case is disposed a candy magazine having suitablemechanism-for dropping merchandise downwardly through a chute formed bya, wall i6 and a flap door or closure member l8. An article ofmerchandise passing down this chute, which bears the general numeral 20,is ultimately dropped into a drawer 22 comprising a front panel 24, abottom 26, a downwardly sloping rear portion 28 and side walls, such as30. The front panel may have an outer protection or decorative plate 32and a handle means, such as 34.

The flap door I8 is hinged to the back wall it) of the vending machineat 36 and comprises a short camming surface 38, a main body portion 40bent forwardly of the camming surface 38, and an end portion 42 havingan angle with the main body portion 40, such that when the flap door itis moved into the-dotted position identified by the numeral 44, the endportion 42 will be flush with the wall l6. Cooperative action betweenthe flap door l8 and the drawer 22 is established by means of a plate orarm 46 which is mounted on adepending flange 48 of the sloped bottomportion 28 in the drawer 22 by any suitable means.

In operation, by moving the drawer into the dotted position 50, theupper end of the arm at swings the flap door l8 into closed position andthen slides along the main body portion to of the flap door l8 when thedrawer is further opened. By drawing the drawer open a comparativelyshort distance therefore, the door I8 is completely closed.

In order to make certain that a wire may not be inserted in the chutewhen the flap door is only partly closed, that is, when the drawer ismoving from its normal closed position to the dotted line position 50, afalse lnsldewall is provided on the drawer. This false inside frontcomprises a horizontal wall portion 52 and a vertical wall portion 54with a plate 56 thereover. The distance of the vertical wall portion Mfrom the front wall 32 is slightly in excess of the distance necessaryto move the arm 46 in order to completely close the flap door l8. Thus,when the drawer has reached the dotted line position 50, the arm v46 isin the dotted position 56 and it is now engaging the main body portion4a of the flap door l8 so as to hold it in dotted position 44. Byfurther opening the drawer, the hand may be inserted to remove whateveris in it, but at all times the flap door is will remain tightly closed.

While the protective devices of this invention will work satisfactorilywithout providing means for holding the drawer in a normal closedposition, it is desirable to provide such means. for otherwise customerswill leave the drawer open with the result that the merchandise willcome to rest on the flap door 18. While a customer could obtainmerchandise by the simple expedient of closing the drawer, it is betterto keep the door normally closed so that when the machine is cycled themerchandise actually reaches the delivery drawer. Means for holding thedrawer in closed position are suggested in the embodiment shown in thisinvention and consist of a rod 60 mounted on a front wall member 84 andon a bracket 62, the latter in turn being mounted on the base of thevending machine cabinet. The depending portion 48 extends to one side ofthe drawer and is provided with a hole so as to slide along rod 60 whilea spring 66 around the rod is disposed between the front wall member 64and the depending portion 48 of the drawer. By pulling the drawer to theright, the spring 62 is contracted and upon release of the drawer handle34 the spring closes the drawer. It is customary practice to provide tworods, such as 60, one on each side of the drawer, and two springs, suchas 66, with necessary connections to the drawer.

As shown in the drawing, the width of the drawer is not indicated, thereason being that it may be adapted for use on vending machines havingone vertical magazine or a plurality of vertical magazines. In vendingmachines having a plurality of magazines, and a plurality of chutes, itwould be within the contemplation of this invention to utilize a drawerfor each magazine. In such a case there would be a separate chute aboveeach drawer and a separate flap door, such as ill, for each chute. Itis, however, less expensive to utilize one drawer which extends beneathall of the magazines, and this functions entirely satisfactorily invending machines where there is but one coin mechanism and it iscontemplated that only one article of merchandise shall be dispensed oneach actuation of the machine. In further explanation of this, in theordinary selective candy vending machine, upon each cycling ofthe'machine only one delivery mechanism can be functioned, andconsequently there is a tendency on the part of the customer to open thedrawer after each cycling of the machine and withdraw the merchandise.There is, of course, nothing to prevent a customer from cycling themachine while he is opening the drawer to withdraw a package which hehas just purchased, and under such circumstances if a single door with asingle flap door I8 for closing the bottom of all of the magazines werein use, the merchandise delivered would be held on the flap door Ituntil the delivery drawer was again pushed in and drawn out. Theseproblems, how ever, are sufficiently minor so as not to impair theutility of applicants invention when applied to a. multiple selectivevending machine by using a single drawer for a plurality of magazines.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A protective device for that type of vending machine whereinmerchandise is delivered down a chute to a zone accessible to acustomer, comprising a drawer closing said zone, a closure member insaid chute, an inside wall spaced from the front of the drawer, andmeans for completely closing said closure member upon an openingmovement of the drawer before said inside wall has cleared the front ofthe vending machine.

2. A protective device for that type. of vending machine whereinmerchandise is delivered down a chute to a zone accessible to acustomer, comprising a drawer closing said zone, a closure member insaid chute, an inside wall spaced from the front of the drawer, andmeans for completely closing said closure member upon an openingmovement of the drawer before said inside wall has cleared. the front ofthe vending machine,

said means comprising an arm on the back of the 1 drawer engaging saidclosure member.

3. A protective device for that type of vending machine whereinmerchandise is delivered down a chute to a zone accessible to a customercomprising a flap door pivotally supported at one side of said chute forclosing the same, a drawer mounted in said accessible zone, an armmounted on the rear of said drawer and engaging said flap member, a camsurface on said flap member hearing such a relationship thereto thatmoving the arm a limited distance will close the flap member, and afalse inside front wall of the drawer spaced from the front of thedrawer by a distance greater than the distance necessary to move the armto engage the cam surface of the flap member so as to close the flapmember com pletely, whereby opening the drawer to the rates inside frontwall will completely close the flap door in the chute.

4. A protective device for that type of vending machine whereinmerchandise is delivered down a chute to a zone accessible to acustomer, comprising a flap door pivotally supported at one side of saidchute for closing the same, a cam surface on said flap door, a drawermounted in said zone and an upwardly extending arm mounted on the rearof said drawer normally engaging said flap door on the cam surfacethereof whereby an initial movement of the drawer to open position willimmediately close said flap door in the chute and further opening of thedrawer will permit said arm to ride along the remaining portion of saidflap door.

WILLIAM E. RICHMOND. JOHN W. SCHULTZ.

